50 comments on this article

Didn't they just announce it as a winner just a few weeks ago? I'm personally not looking forward to it - at all. I agree that the proposal was poorly executed. I'd much rather they announced the release of the Treehouse TBH.

I’m super excited for this set for a few reasons: 1. It’s going to be black/white or greyscale, which is definitely not the norm for LEGO, 2. It’s from popular culture, but from a bygone era, which is novel, 3. It’s small.

And I don’t even care about Mickey Mouse or Disney. But those reasons above make it interesting to me.

@Huw: I appreciate your candor in the evaluation of the quality of the submission. I am not saying that I agree or disagree with you, I am just thanking you for an honest opinion. Every once in a while some Brickset member seems to seek to challenge the objectivity of you and your fellow administrators. While one example does not totally disprove such an allegation, it does go a long way to remind us of the Brickset team’s independence from TLG. Thanks for everything that you and the others do to make this site so interesting.

I was not overly high on this set when I first saw it on LEGO Ideas, but as time has gone on I've reevaluated and I will definitely buy this set and be happy with the purchase. When you look through Lego ideas the vast amount of them are banking on being "really cool" MOCs, but MOCs that most people can create on their own if they really wanted to OR banking on pop-culture support for things like current TV shows(Dr. Who/Big Bang/Friends). This item is a great mesh point between unique MOC(I haven't seen many steamboats), pop-culturally relevant(Disney/Mickey Mouse), Historically relevant(First depiction of Mickey), and visually different(Black & White). I can see why people would prefer for other LEGO Ideas to be put into production, but I dont understand the hate for this being produced. This isnt a zero-sum game, you can support this Ideas set and others. Hating on this set doesnt improve your chances of getting "your" set.

As basic as the initial proposal might have been, I appreciate a project creator who is conscientious about not proposing something to supporters that LEGO would be unable to deliver at any reasonable cost. Some of the projects on there (licensed and non-licensed alike) can be a little ludicrously ambitious in terms of their size, use of recolors or retired molds, and number of new minifigures, and that inevitably puts LEGO in a tough spot trying to figure out how much of the project’s support was contingent on features they can’t possibly deliver at a price people will be willing to pay.

As much as the LEGO Ideas program’s capability to produce larger sets has grown with stuff like the Saturn V, Old Fishing Store, and Voltron, people have to be willing to recognize that giving their set a bigger footprint than Assembly Square or Ninjago City Docks while maintaining a similar level of detail is just asking for trouble.

@boneheadhh1, while that’s technically true, the plane short and one other short (I forget the name) were test screenings and weren’t actually released to the public. As such, Steamboat Willie is credited as the first Mickey cartoon and is what made his character famous.

Wow so much hate, personally I'm excited about this set but then again I love Disney. Though I will say if the price is ridiculusly high though the piece count is low I will be quite angered but I hope the set will be good.

@boneheadhh1, again this is technically true, but it was still a test showing, and it wasn’t picked up by anyone for distribution. So Steamboat Willie is still considered the first cartoon with Mickey, and it was complete with sound.

@MisterBricksterIt doesn't quite break the record for Ideas turnaround (yet), Lego Birds was 2 weeks 5 days between selection announcement and reveal/teaser, whereas this set was 3 weeks 4 days. Birds took 8 weeks 2 days from announcement to being on shelves so lets so if Steamboat Willie beats that record!

I would not be surprised if the set is large, even for 170 pieces. Most sets that are 170 pieces consist mostly of small parts like studs and 1x2 plates. This set is built mostly of larger blocks, which are bigger and more expensive. Even at only 170 pieces, this set could easily be the size of a typical 300-500 piece set, and come with a higher price tag as a result

I like this Ideas set. I grew up with Disney shorts. I was expecting B&W minifigures in a CMF series though. None the less, as some people posted here, this is a great novelty item to show on your desk.

It all depends on the size and price of the set for me. I would love to have it as I just love animation and it would be a nice tribute, but I have very limited space and if it is too big I would have no place to have it ;///

My local lego store (Croatia) announced/teased this set couple of days ago. They said it has piece count of 582 and price tag of 100EUR. Do note that prices usually are about 5-10% higher that EU prices, but this is still an overpriced set how ever you put it. Yes, there is possibility they made wrong announcement, it wouldn't be first time.

I for one am very excited to see that this is being put into production. If you don’t like this, then it’s probably not for you to begin with. It seems that this is more of a niche product that is intended for fans that also have an appreciation for vintage cartoons. Similar to The Flintstone set, not everyone appreciates that either. It does seem interesting that this comes directly after the former. Perhaps this could be testing the waters for more products along these lines.

The finished model looks quite different from the submission (which was the first Ideas submission to be accepted that I felt was a weak build). The minifigs look great. I'm concerned with the price as well and this is before we hear anything official. I too saw the 23rd of March as the launch date.

My son is an avid fan of the mouse and I'd like a copy of this set for myself as well so I'm hoping the price is closer to $50 than $100.

@Captain Mutant:There are a few critical criteria to making the jump from 10k to actual set. One of the biggest is you have to be able to secure the license, which in this case should fall under the same license that allowed them to do the Disney CMF line and the Disney Castle set. Second is the project has to fall in line with LEGO ideals, which seems like a non-issue given that they did have a compatible license in place already. This is size, where these kitchen-table-sized projects are sure to be rejected because they simply can't put out $1000 Ideas sets, but this is comparable in size to much of the Ideas lineup. And fourth is there has to be a designer on the Ideas team who is willing to step up and design the final model. Exo-Suit almost failed to launch for this very reason. There was no license needed, it fit quite nicely within the Classic Space theme without challenging LEGO values, it was small enough that they were able to expand the release version by adding one of Pete's turtles, but the project model was incredibly complex and fragile and would have never passed the Design Team approval stage. For Steamboat Willie, it was really just a matter of coming up with a design that would clear the approval process and work with their production schedule. It's entirely possible that even before that project hit the 10k mark there was someone on the Ideas team toiling away on a design, figuring it would be a shoe-in for the other criteria.

@boneheadhh1:Plane Crazy was the first to be produced and previewed, Gallopin' Gauchos was second on both counts, but Steamboat Willie (third to be produced) was the first to get picked up by a distributor for wide release. The previous two were also previewed in silent form, but had sound recorded before they were officially released. Gallopin' Gauchos was second behind Steamboat Willie, and Plane Crazy actually ended up being fourth behind Barn Dance.

@bmwlego:As for price, it's unlikely to be a $50 set. Just one paddle wheel clocks in at 44pcs, minimum, so the paddle wheel system is going to account for over 100ps or $10 of MSRP. The hull and smokestacks look beefier than the original project. The thing I'm most curious about, though, is the ban on creation of new molds. It looks like there are at least two parts that are going to be unique to this set. They're pretty distinctive, of very limited use, and unlikely to have been generated for another theme. And yet, there they are, as obvious as the hair on your head. They're also pretty critical to getting the look of the set right, which will be obvious once you realize what parts they are.

@Purple Dave: I'm no Classic Space fan, but as someone who strongly prioritizes durability and ease of building over the use of flimsy or even dubious techniques in my MOCs, I'd love to read more about the development of the Exo-Suit! Do you know of any articles or resources? The instructions don't say much about the design process at all.

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